


Second Chances

by nyghtertale



Category: Jeremiah (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-22
Updated: 2012-12-22
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:38:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyghtertale/pseuds/nyghtertale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe he’d gotten soft spending time at Thunder Mountain, but Jeremiah can’t help thinking the cell these great folks at Valhalla Sector had given him lacked a few basic amenities. There was the whole no toilet paper issue, plus no scented soap by the sink, and not once had they been by to put a mint on his pillow. On the other hand, maybe he really needed to learn to appreciate boredom more. That could be his new New Year’s resolution, now that he’d crossed ‘finding my dad’ off the list.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nocturnal08](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nocturnal08/gifts).



Maybe he’d gotten soft spending time at Thunder Mountain, but Jeremiah can’t help thinking the cell these great folks at Valhalla Sector had given him lacked a few basic amenities. There was the whole no toilet paper issue, plus no scented soap by the sink, and not once had they been by to put a mint on his pillow. On the other hand, maybe he really needed to learn to appreciate boredom more. That could be his new New Year’s resolution, now that he’d crossed ‘finding my dad’ off the list.

Assuming he was still alive at New Year’s.

The soldiers came - actual soldiers, not just men wearing uniforms they found rifling through debris - carrying riot shields and batons. They took Markus and they took Erin and they left Jeremiah. One of the joys of being non-expendable, he guessed.

Was he supposed to feel honored that General Waverly himself came down to handle the operation? It wasn’t for Markus; they’d consistently underestimated him and his people. In a different situation it would’ve been hilarious, ‘cause that was a mistake that would come back to bite you in the butt.

“What are you going to do with them?” Jeremiah asked Waverly. It could be anything. These people were operating under a mass delusion that they still mattered. The world had moved on. A generation grew up without any adults telling them what to do, without institutions or establishments or authorities from on high, and they weren’t interested in going back.

Waverly spouted nonsense about them being expendable and trades and a new world order. Jeremiah wanted to hit him; he tried, but those goddamn bars were in the way.

Jeremiah went back to counting blocks and cultivating an appreciation for boredom. He had just settled on the thin, yet incredibly lumpy mattress Vahalla had provided when he heard the guards ‘assisting’ someone into the next cell. “Markus? Is that you?”

“No,” came Devon’s voice. “It’s me.”

Now Jeremiah wished he’d paid more attention to what Waverly had said, rather than imagining how much better the world would be without Waverly in it. He couldn’t think of anyone who’d want to trade for Markus other than Thunder Mountain. Markus was arrogant, stuck-up, smug, always thought he was right, never admitted when he was wrong, and insisted on having the last word every time. Plus, he didn’t appreciate a stylish jacket.

Markus always found a way to accomplish his goals, though. Just because Jeremiah didn’t know of anything Thunder Mountain had learned that would give them the key to the Big Death, didn’t mean they didn’t have it. Or maybe it was a giant bluff.

Either way, it was pretty clear Jeremiah should never have come. All his presence here had done was hurt his dad. If they made the trade, and his dad suddenly became irrelevant... Jeremiah’s fists clenched. If he were on the outside, he would’ve made sure his dad was included in any trade. In here, Jeremiah was nothing but a liability.

Less an arm’s length away from his dad, but a thick row of concrete bricks stood between them like the solidest metaphor ever made. “Why couldn’t you have sent me some word?”Jeremiah asked suddenly. “Something other than Ezekial’s cryptic mutterings? You know, a one line note that said ‘still alive, but held hostage by fucking psychopaths who want to use you as leverage’ would’ve been great to have had at any point in these last fifteen years.”

“Jeremiah... I only learned you’d survived recently. The risk that my attempt to contact you would put you in danger was too great.”

“Every day I spent out in the world, I was in danger! Knowing you were alive, that would’ve... That’s what kept me going.”

“You don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t. So explain it to me.”

A pause, followed by a weary sigh. “The situation in here is complicated.”

“I’ve seen a lot of people set themselves up as petty dictators. This, here,” Jeremiah gestured at the surrounding space, not that his dad could see him. “It’s no different. They’re just older.”

“Jeremiah,” his dad began, but further conversation was halted by the sounds of the guard opening the main door to the cell block and letting in Libby.

“Make these last,” Libby instructed, nearly babbling, as she pressed the slender boxes of food into his hands. Jeremiah had never seen her so rattled. Was she being harassed now that the lab was shut down and Devon locked up? He glanced down at the packages Libby had shoved into his hands. He would’ve thought her the type to bake a cake with a file hidden in it, not- Jeremiah blinked. These were not snacks, but dry rations and she’d given him well over a day’s worth. He let out his breath with a curse as realization hit. Thunder Mountain hadn’t given Vahalla Sector the key to the Big Death; they’d somehow found a way to give them the Big Death itself.

The guard called out to Libby, “You forgot your cooler,” and then there was a loud noise and then darkness.

When Jeremiah awoke, his head hurt and he was still locked in a cell in a facility full of the Big Death. The screams of the dying echoed down the vent. Moans and pleas and wordless cries, rising and falling, and one by one falling silent. Jeremiah drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He remembered these sounds, from the first time. Remembered waiting with his brother, flinching when someone pounded on the door, calling for help.

The crazy person with a machine gun shooting blindly at him was new, though.

“Dad?”

“I’m good.”

It was quiet, now, in the cells. It occurred to Jeremiah that this was the first opportunity he had to talk to his dad without anyone listening in and there was nothing he could think to say. Sorry my friends managed to bring the Big Death back before Valhalla Sector did? Yes, it sucked this much the first time through?

It ended, though. That was one lesson learned from the Big Death - even when it seemed that everything was gone, the world kept going. The sun rose, birds tweeted, trees fell in the woods without anyone to hear them. Cell doors popped open, and hazmat-suit-bearing women came by. And maybe the world wasn’t as nice as it had been, but that just meant you had to work harder at making it better.

Jeremiah remembered those first few days walking through the remnants of the world left over after the Big Death, when he and Michael had finally been forced to leave the house in search of food. Jeremiah had pitied the other children, because their parents were dead, and his were still alive. And when they got beat up and their food stolen, when they had to sleep on the dirt in the cold, Jeremiah had still known they were luckier and better than everyone else, because their parents were waiting for them at Valhalla.

His dad was alive. Survivor of the Big Death twice over. He felt like laughing.

Once he was done with quarantine, and they’d run all the tests they could think, he went to find Markus. He wanted - needed - to see for himself that Markus was ok. Except when he found Markus, it was pretty clear Markus was not alright and he didn’t need Kurdy’s silent look to explain why. Not with Markus sitting at the edge of the cliff above the river and no sign of Meaghan.

Markus started up with a spiel on new beginnings, and maybe focusing on work was the best thing for him, Jeremiah thought. One day, soon, he would tell Markus what Meaghan said, standing outside his cell, about being tired. Not today, though.

Kurdy lost Elizabeth, Markus lost Meaghan, and Jeremiah? Jeremiah got his dad, living and breathing and all. He could be good, give Kurdy his space and keep Markus grounded, because at the end of the day, their parents were dead and his dad, his dad was alive and waiting for him.


End file.
